Air Sailing Competition Day 1 - Mommy I want my water back

Today was forecast to be blue in the task area, but they got that wrong. And I'm glad they did! A 3 hour MAT was set with only one turnpoint, then pick your own. Based on yesterday I was figuring it could be possible to do 90mph around the task so I set about 270 miles in the direction of the best forecast. Well the clouds started popping at about 20,000ft as we launched, but they were way off to the east. Fortunately that was the way I had planned on going. Climbs were small, punchy, and very strong with a lot of much weaker ones around. My best was a 15kt bottom-to-top with a peak of 28 knots. Insane! I'm flying the LS-8 dry because it's a Sports Class event, and boy I wish I didn't have to! These are by far the strongest conditions we have met all trip and the poor glider is being tossed around like a leaf. Also irritating is having to pull out of climbs at 17,500 to avoid bumping airspace. Some sympathy please, guys.

Looking east from 17,500 after leaving a 15kt thermal - share my pain!